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Bees in Northern Wisconsin

My daughter lives outside of Washburn in northern WI and is thinking about starting bees. If there are any beekeepers from up in that area maybe you could let me know what the specific problems are. I can kind of guess - long winter, deep snow, bears - but maybe there are some specific issues I'm not thinking of. If there are bee clubs up in that area maybe you could let me know how to contact them.

Bears sheesh I can't imagine having to set up your bee yard to keep bears out.

Re: Bees in Northern Wisconsin

Did your daughter decide to start bees next spring? I just found this post while searching for info on a regional beekeepers meeting in Ashland tomorrow. Would be a good place to meet other beekeepers in the area!

Re: Bees in Northern Wisconsin

I live in St Germain, and there are bears here... for sure. There are also wasps and ants and skunks... I could have put up an electric fence, or mounted my hive on a tall pole, but this is what I came up with. On the boom is a black rubber coupling that is 2 inches on one side and four on the other. I have lined this with axle grease to keep the ants out... not to mention mice, and anything else that doesn't fly.

The video is long, skip over the boring stuff, in about seven minutes I show a shot from underneath the hive. Try to ignore the loud ass chicken. This is a proto-type setup. In the real world I would mound either two or four of them on a pole to run from one winch. Or, for single hive I could nail together a couple of ten foot 2x6 planks to mount the gear on, then strap it to a tree.

Re: Bees in Northern Wisconsin

Thanks for everyone's reply. My daughter's still interested but expenses have been high up there. Her neighbor and her just bought 14 cords of wood and I guess that just gets them through 1/2 of the winter. Duncan151 sent a facebook link for Wisconsin bee clubs but I'm not facebook so I don't know what's on it.

Re: Bees in Northern Wisconsin

Originally Posted by jwisnewski

Thanks for everyone's reply. My daughter's still interested but expenses have been high up there. Her neighbor and her just bought 14 cords of wood and I guess that just gets them through 1/2 of the winter. Duncan151 sent a facebook link for Wisconsin bee clubs but I'm not facebook so I don't know what's on it.

Sorry, that was a link to a guy who is working on raising bees just south of Lake Superior, figured that would be some info for you to use. As far as I know he is only on FB. He is a first year beekeeper, but seems to have a pretty level head about the area and the challenges that he is facing.